James Bavis was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent many summers on the Gulf Islands. He is an Industrial Technology teacher in Vancouver, and has been carving wood for eighteen years. Besides canoeing through BC, James has also traveled to the Yukon, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories in order to view water birds in their natural habitat.

He is a self-taught wood carver who uses woods native to BC which he finds on beaches and along rivers. He then dries each piece of wood for a minimum of two years.
He finishes his carvings with a Watco oil and seals them with Tung oil. Something distinctive about his work is that most of his carvings contain knots which contrast with the perfectly smooth texture.

He has had his work displayed at several craft shows in Vancouver, and he also participated in the Yokohama Exotic Showcase in Japan in 1989.